Ru-teen

Abbi will be 8 weeks old on Wednesday. It’s hard to believe and she is getting so big. With all of the new things to get accustomed to, who has time to think about a routine? Sure, our sleep levels have changed, we can change a diaper one handed in our sleep, we sort of understand what each of the different cries mean and the social smiles are so awesome they can absorb most of an afternoon. We never really paid much attention to when during the day all of these things were happening.

Until recently, we we're at the top...'oblivious'

Until….

About a week ago. I think someone was asking us “How old is she?” when it hit us. Em is more than halfway through her maternity leave. It’s only a matter of weeks before she will go back to work and a good night’s sleep will go from a dream to a necessity. In those same few weeks, Abbi will be taken to Gramma’s house for an 8 hour work day.

We needed some structure. It was time to really start keeping track of when feedings take place, when diapers need changing, and when and how long Abbi sleeps.

Oh my goodness have we been lucky. The first day we did our best to keep Abbi awake for an extra hour or so in the evening. We made sure she had a good feeding and clean pants. We put her down and promptly went to bed ourselves. We were pleasantly woken to the ‘ehh ehh’ of Abbi through the monitor 7 hours later. That’s right, 7 whole hours.

We thought it was a fluke and were sure the next night would be rough. We continued with our early evening stay awake, feed, change the pants and put down in the crib. The second night she went 5 hours. Not as good as night #1 but we couldn’t expect miracles in two days. The third night Abbi went 8 hours before waking and the fourth 10 hours went by. At the end of 10 hours, we finally woke her up because we wanted her to eat.

I feel a little bad even posting about our seemingly easy trip of getting into a routine. We’ve talked to so many people that have all but given up on any sort of routine after months of failed attempts. If I just jinxed us by putting these words out for public consumption, I will of course be back with my foot in my mouth blogging about our failed attempt.

6 Responses

I didn’t know a routine was a must when I had my two kids back in the olden days. I nursed them both and so that set the routine for everything! I guess that it is wise of you to begin this process and have an good idea so that your mom will have an idea of how Abbi’s little internal clock is working. I always check on how our little grand’s night was to gauge his naptime potential and his appetite.

I get the same thing when I told people that my little guy slept through the night at 8 weeks. I just followed his cues as he started to get more predictable and stuck with them. At night we would eat, take a bath, and then get ready for bed. I would put him in his crib and stay with him until he got really sleepy. One word of advice…don’t wake them up even if it has been 10 hours! She will most definitely let you know when she is hungry. I breast feed my little guy and he sleeps about 11hours at a time and that’s since 2 months old. my pediatrician told me to let him sleep and he’ll be fine.

I’m a little green eyed reading this! My daughter was 20 months old before she slept through the night on a regular basis. Good for you guys though, it will help a lot with the adjustment of your wife re-entering the FT workforce as a FT mom. (I despise the weekend mom label, BTW.)

Wow! I wish my son was sleeping that much! He is the same age as your daughter, and he is still waking me up every 3 hours to eat. Also, he hates sleeping by himself in the co-sleeper. You guys are very lucky that she likes her crib and can sleep that long without eating. If you don’t mind me asking, how much does she eat and when during the day? Also, what is her weight now? I’m trying to figure out how to get my little guy on some sort of schedule so I can get some sleep!!

I waited to respond because Abbi had her first vaccinations today and I’d have a more current weight to share. She’s at exactly 12 pounds. Abbi eats 4 ounces when she first gets up at 6:30. Em says the amount and the number of feedings vary during the day. She says it all depends on how long she sleeps in the late morning. We make sure she is awake at 6pm and keep her awake until 7:30-8pm. She then gets another 4 ounces or so (tough to measure when she’s latched to Em. We can only measure time). As she falls asleep, we hold her for about 15 minutes to be sure she is out and isn’t going to start crying as soon as we lay her down. Then it’s to the crib and we start all over the next morning.

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